US Treasury: Over $9B Lost In Auto Industry Bailout

The final tally is in: American taxpayers lost $9.26 billion from the Bush II/Obama-led rescue of the U.S. auto industry.

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GM: Opel, Vauxhall Edging Closer To The Black Despite Russia

Despite problems with the Russian market, as well as restructuring costs, General Motors says Vauxhall and Opel are on their way out of the red and into the black.

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U.S. Treasury Loses $11.2 Billion In Accounting Of GM Bailout

Detroit Free Press reports the U.S. Treasury lost $11.2 billion in taxpayer money from the rescue of General Motors back in 2008, up from the $10.3 billion estimated after the agency sold its remaining shares back in early December 2013. Part of the final figure came as a write-off of an $826 million “administrative claim,” which was found in a report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The overall figure pales in comparison to the $50.2 billion given by both Bush and Obama administrations between 2008 and 2009 to GM as the automaker struggled through its financial crisis at the onset of the Great Recession.

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Tesla Q4 Sees $16 Million In Losses, Annual Revenue Climbs To $2 Billion

Tesla announced their Q4 2013 earnings saw a total net loss of $16 million while pulling in an annual revenue of $2 billion on the strength of higher sales and more efficient manufacturing methods.

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Automotive News To GM And Ford: Get Out Of Europe Now

Over the last 12 years, GM lost $16 billion in Europe, more than a billion each year. Ford is doing a bit better, but it sits on excess capacity of 300,000 units in Europe and expects a loss of $500 million to $600 million. Automotive News [sub] recommends to both: Pack up and leave. Says Luca Ciferri in AN:

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The UAW's Recipe Against Losses: Spend Some More

It’s said that people do resemble their dogs. The UAW surely looks more and more like the GM of old. For years, the UAW has spent more than it took, forcing it to live off its savings. Once again, the UAW wants to change this – two years from now. Until then, it will happily go on making losses.

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Monster European Perception Gap Swallows GM And Ford

From the sounds of a story at the Freep, both GM and Ford appear to get ready for bigger losses from Europe. Led by fanfares inflated by their hometown paper, Ford and GM seem to embark on a PR campaign to soften the blow at home:

“Europe was GM’s only unprofitable global region in 2010, extending the company’s streak of years in the red there to 11, with a $1.8-billion European operating loss. GM is hoping to break even in Europe this year before restructuring charges.”

(It’s the restructuring charges that will be the humdinger. Even if kept as non-recurring items, they will hit the bottom line in a big way.)

“Ford unexpectedly lost money in the fourth quarter in Europe, losing market share because it refused to match competitors’ incentives. It made a profit on European operations for all of 2010, albeit just $182 million of its $6.6-billion companywide profit for the year.”

And who’s to blame? The customer of course. The Freep’s informers see a gaping perception gap that is widening every day:

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GM Board Member: The IPO Is Premature

Ready to buy some GM share tomorrow? A consummate insider who sits on the board of an important GM company says: Don’t.

Klaus-Franz, Chair of the Opel works council and Vice Chairman of the Opel supervisory board warns: “The IPO is premature. Sure, GM has delivered three good quarters. But he restructuring in Europe must be finished to give investors the visibility they need.”

Franz knows the skeletons hidden in Opel’s closet. In an interview with Germany’s Focus Magazine, Franz gives valuable investment advice to potential GM shareholders. To repeat: “Don’t.”

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What Would GM Be Without Opel? Rich

Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the GM boardroom:

“Did you see the latest Opel numbers?”

“Jeez! Horrible!”

“What are these clowns thinking? We have an IPO to close.”

“Talk about timing. We should have sold them to the Russians. Who was the moron that cancelled that deal?”

“Whitacre.”

“I hope the next rattlesnake wins.”

Indeed, the news from Rüsselsheim aren’t good, and with the IPO closing this coming week, they could not have come at a more inopportune time.

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Wunderbar! Porsche Loses Money!

When Wendelin Wiedeking fought the battle against Porsche being taken over by Volkswagen and himself sent to Siberia, his last bullet was a threat that the takeover by Volkswagen could cost €3b in additional taxes.

BS, we said, “there are ways to circumvent this nasty detail.” The best way to avoid taxes are losses. Actually, losses will get you a hefty tax refund. We were sure that VW’s CFO Hans Dieter Poetsch would know how to come up with hefty losses. Poetsch did not disappoint.

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GM Lost $5k On Every Saab Sold In The Last 8 Years
Swedish business site di.se has done some numbercrunching , and figured out that GM has lost SEK 35,000,- (eq aprox $ 5,100, at the current exchange rate) o…
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  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.